


Learning to Float

by LunarExo



Series: Johndaveweek 2018 [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Space Mers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-05 23:06:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15181355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunarExo/pseuds/LunarExo
Summary: A flash of blue moved deep below the surface, too fast and too dim for John to track properly. Another, higher up, was more clearly visible, his eyes growing wide. Whatever was down there, it was bioluminescent, and it wasbig.





	Learning to Float

“Houston? We have landed. I repeat, we have landed.” John slowly unstrapped himself from the cockpit of his small shuttle, taking a few wobbly steps as he readjusted to gravity. He hadn’t been able to set his feet on solid ground in weeks now, and he hadn’t realised just how much he’d missed it. 

The sky outside was a deep grey, more like an overcast day on Earth than any sort of alien weather. It was eerily familiar as much as it was completely novel. The sensor on his suit read 288 kelvin, and John sighed to himself. That was familiar at least, just like being back at home in Seattle. Sometimes he wondered if he should have missed Earth more than he did.

“Hello? John? Do you read?” The voice on his radio was crackly, but it came through clear enough, John pressing a button on his suit to reply. 

“Yeah, I’m here. It’s pretty quiet over here. You said the rovers didn’t detect anything hostile, right?”

“It didn’t detect anything at all. But it’s all ocean, John. You better be careful you don’t fall in, who knows what’s in that water.”

Exiting his shuttle, John finally looked around, staring at the vast ocean before him, a deep blue abyss only broken by crags of black rocks jutting up from the surface. He whistled, long and low, scanning the water before him. “Roger that Jamie, I’ll contact you if I see anything. I need some time to adjust.”

There was silence for a moment, and then Jamie responded, voice softer. “I’m right here if you need anything. And remember John, you can always come home.”

Home… John pressed some more buttons, the metal dock slowly emerging from his shuttle as he thought about home. By now, he hadn’t been to Earth in six years, and there was nobody left there to miss him. HQ was where everyone he knew was, and he had fond memories of it, but even that… It didn’t feel like home. It was just HQ.

It didn’t really matter, Jamie probably didn’t mean anything by it, but John couldn’t help but feel a little bristled by it. He’d become a space nomad, somehow, somewhere along the line, and he didn’t know if he liked that. Sometimes, it barely felt like he was helping people at all. 

Something flickered in the water, and John was pulled from his thoughts to stare down at the sea, the water licking at his dock. The rovers didn’t detect anything hostile, but that didn’t mean the ocean was abandoned. Curious, he knelt down on the dock, his fingers moving to brush the ocean’s surface.

A flash of blue moved deep below the surface, too fast and too dim for John to track properly. Another, higher up, was more clearly visible, his eyes growing wide. Whatever was down there, it was bioluminescent, and it was _big._

Curious, his fingers wiggled under the surface of the water, ripples moving out from his movement disrupting the steady movement of gentle waves. Another flash of blue, and two antennas emerged from the water, twitching in the air. John gasped, right as something brushed his outstretched hand. 

It was only now that he could see the true size of whatever he’d stumbled upon, a light glow visible deep, deep down. If he were to guess, he’d think the creature’s end was at least thirty, maybe forty feet deep, and that was assuming what he could see was even the end of it. 

“Hello?” He let his fingers move under the water, bumping the creature more thoroughly. He felt it startle, moving away, but then it pushed against him more thoroughly, moving to grip his hand. John stared down at the water, fascinated. Whatever it was, it had at least one humanoid feature, fingers entwining eagerly with his own beneath the surface. “What are you?”

As if answering his question, the figure untangled its hand from John’s, rising up and out of the water altogether.

John had met aliens before. His entire job was to go from planet to planet, discovering and communicating with non-hostile beings. The most intelligent came to HQ, acting as diplomats and merchants. But he’d never experienced the feeling of meeting something so ethereal as this creature, who rose elegantly from the sea, staring deeply into John’s eyes with its own bright red ones. 

It hovered in place there, chirping nonsense at John, looking dejected when he could only shrug.

Suddenly, hands shot up from the water, sharp claws clacking uselessly at his helmet, those nonsense chirps growing more desperate. The antenna slapped against the glass as well, glowing brighter at the tips. John yelled, shoving the creature back as he scrambled away from the water, panting hard. 

The distress on the creature’s face was the most surprising part. No anger, no rage, no fierce hunger. Just sadness and clear need as he gestured at the helmet, motioning clearly that he needed it off of John’s head right now. HQ (and common sense) had made it perfectly clear that taking off your helmet was putting you in harms way, but John found himself adjusting the panels to pull it off anyway, a loud hiss filling the air as he removed the glass. 

He hadn’t even taken a breath before the creature lurched up again, scrabbling to grab at him. Expecting it this time, John moved closer, letting his eyes fall shut. He could only hope it wasn’t a ruse to get close to him and kill him.

Instead, surprisingly gentle hands held him steady, more chirping meeting his ears, two antenna reaching up to touch to his head before the images began to flash behind his eyelids.

Space, dark and cold. His mother waving goodbye to him, tied by a string stronger than stars to another. Falling, sinking, _swimming_. A companion at his side, all smiles and giddy excitement. _We grew up together,_ his mind provided, and he watched them swim away, mischief etched onto their face.

Everything hyper focused on them, unaware of their surroundings as they swam under the waves. The glow, bright green to his blue, matching the algae they grew up around. It was a target on their back, they were too slow, too young. _I saw it all._ The smell of blood in his nostrils, every breath tinged with their life.

He grew cautious as he grew larger, burying the _thing_ that had taken his companion from him under boulders too heavy to move, leaving it to starve itself. _How resourceful,_ a voice in John’s head sneered, and he felt the ache in it heavy in his own bones. 

Then… Emptiness. Swimming, eating, sleeping. Swimming, eating, sleeping. Etching days into the rock, and then giving up on even that. _I wish I didn’t know how long it’d been._ The moons cycled, days and hours tracked with the tides of the sea, ten years alone. 

_Please help me._

He came back to himself with hands on his cheeks, tears he didn’t recognize streaming down them to wet the leathery skin against his own. John could only nod, pressing forwards, suit and all, to fall into the water. 

Buoyed up by the massive tail flickering in the water, John smiled at the relieved look on his new companion’s face, reaching out to wipe away the tears that had bubbled up in his eyes. “I’ll stay, I’ll help you. I promise.”

He was flashed a smile of sharp teeth, hands grabbing his face once more, three words filling his head.

_Thank you, John._

**Author's Note:**

> this fic brought to you by: craggy rocks


End file.
